GCM

I'm also glad there is mention of the stress medical staff undergo. A good many years ago we had an excellent secretary in my office. I was surprised that she was a LtCdr in the USNR Nurse Corps. It turns out she had served in a field hospital in Vietnam and had PTSD and would have flashbacks working in a medical setting. She stayed in the USNR by doing classroom teaching for nurses. She worked for us for a few years and then left for a job as an Operating Room nurse at Mass. General, a major Boston hospital. A week later she was back asking if her job was still open and if she could come back (It was and she did!) She had started working in an OR and the sounds of OR equipment started sounding like incoming helos with wounded and the doctor across from her transformed into a doc from Vietnam.

She tried to get help from the VA and they would not believe a nurse not on the frontlines could get PTSD. I am happy to say the VA has now mended their way on that one. A friend and neighbor who was also in Vietnam was a general dentist who found himself doing oral surgery way above his training. He came back home with a major alcohol problem which he fortunately beat. He still practices as a general dentist and will not drink a drop anymore.The stress of working with horrific injuries can be just as traumatic as being on the front lines. Part of the problem is that people were ending up doing work they were not trained for with nurses doing surgical procedures due to too many casualties and not enough docs and dentists doing oral surgeons work.

Old-Salt

re above,brits get a lot worse treatment from forces than yanks do.
when these reservists go back to NHS or regs leave,they get squat.
NHS is a closed shop of timeserving folk.
some good,some bad-all in a q waiting for dead folks shoes.

the experience military medics get is not only undervlued,they think you are trying to cheat the system somehow.
as if they cant get what you have so ya bo sucks-it is ignored.
many a good reservist has had stress caused by the fault lines between the civvy job and the military one.
after a tour,you are so far ahead of the game in NHS-its scary.
then its back to reality and the old do the 77735 and a half course before you can do in the NHS what you have done in bastion for 6 months.
waiting list 44 years and oh if you do anything we will report you to the NMC for misconduct.

outside NHS,different.
experience is valued.
no driving folk to outpatients for 2 years for experience CMT,no staff nurse on nights on geriatric wards(oh sorry EMI now) for experienced nurse-real promotion,real wages and a chance to basicaly do the job they did in the military and be rewarded.
NHS respecting military experience-dont make me laugh.
no doubt individual NHS staff respect individual ex mil and reservist staff,but as an organisation the NHS is basically communist and hates the military.

hasnt changed in over 30 years-perhaps never will.
especially as the lads n lassies can go overseas and do their work for real pay and a bit of adventure flung in.
sad we keep losing good talent overseas.
been out nearly 20 years now and keep hearing the same stories from good folk I hire,and my dwindling contacts inside.
nice to hear Tim is still in-he must be ready to retire,and that sam rawlinson got a gong for sorting out the blood supply issue.

LE

On a tour in NI the medic was co-located at our base. He was an LE nurse from the RAMC. He didn't need to do much for four months as the boys were pretty fit and healthy. Except this. 6 times on that tour he left the base in his Saracen to collect the 6 dead and 4 very seriously injured soldiers on our patch. What kind of mental courage and stamina, what compassion and what humanity do you need to be able to do that kind of work? My admiration for medics since that time simply knows no bounds.